For the framebuffer in /boot/grub/menu.lst, I just used vga=773 and it doesn't look too bad. It freaks out with the vga=871 or whatever number you need for widescreen. (Note from reader who owns new T61: This is because the hex calculation presented at first is not what you need. 1280x800 requires "vga=865" at the end of the "kernel ..." line in menu.lst; I put that in instead and it works fine. If things are okay you do not really need that much more real estate in the text session, but if anything isn't working when you're setting up the system I find it nice to be able to fit more text on the screen.)

The Nvidia driver has it's own way of doing resolution, but I didn't find any conflict between the xorg setting and nvidia setting, so it really doesn't matter. I think the nvidia trumps the xorg.conf, though. (Another note from reader: I did not find that the above modification was needed. Run "Xorg --configure" and "nvidia-xconfig." That will put an "xorg.conf" in /etc/X11 and another conf file with a different name in the /root directory. If you look at the contents of the two files and just edit the one from the root directory until instances of 'type 1' and 'dri' are commented out, then move it to the /etc/X11 directory, rename the original xorg.conf so it won't be noticed, and then call the edited conf file xorg.conf, you should be okay.)

Synaptic

Works great with the settings provided in the Pacman output

Graphics

Nvidia

Driver works great, even with composite enabled.

Tweaks

When I have time

Intel

Don't have it, so cannot say.

xf86-video-intel from testing should support the Intel video. I haven't tried it yet, but I'll report back when I do.

Power Management

ACPI

Install acpi, acpid. Add acpid to the daemons list.
Load module thinkpad_acpi.
You might have to blacklist asus_acpi/toshiba_acpi, it doesn't hurt anyway.
It should work, and is able to provide accurate information to such programs as Conky and GKrellm, as well as the GNOME battery monitor.

SpeedStep

The regular way works fine.

Suspend/Resume

Suspend/Resume technically worked out of the box for me, however resuming took about 2+ minutes, while my screen stayed off and my speaker beeped 2-3 times. Sometimes it hung up too. These changes seemed to have worked for me and where found here.
Remember to remove the boot parameters acpi_sleep=s3_bios or acpi_sleep=s3_mode if you have them, they do not seem to be needed anymore and may cause the system to crash on resume.

T61p nvidia graphics and the proprietary driver

(You do not need to do the following any more if you have hal-info 0.20080508-1 or newer.)
In /usr/share/hal/fdi/information/10freedesktop/20-video-quirk-pm-lenovo.fdi, change line 51 from:

Fingerprint Reader

Sound

The module is snd-hda-intel. It works, albeit with several unresolved quirks. The mute button works partially out of the box (it can mute but not unmute.) To unmute, press either the volume up or volume down buttons. However, one workaround is enabling the volume up/down buttons as Keyboard shortcuts in your Desktop environment.

--Edit: Since Kernel 2.6.25 the mute/unmute function works out of the box. Now it unmutes also!

--Edit: To enable sound you must unmute the internal speaker channel, and turn down or mute the microphone channels, otherwise you will get nothing but a squeaking sound from the speaker.

--Edit: On my t61 sounds did not work till I added "snd-hda-codec-analog" to the modules, recompiled the modules (sudo mkinitcpio -p linux) and restarted.

HDAPS

Note: this information is out of date for 2.6.28 and newer kernels. See the HDAPS wiki page and follow the directions there.

Install the the Kernel(kernel26tp) from AUR and add it into your bootloader menu.
Boot the new Kernel.

based on which Desktop environment you are in you will have to edit your hotkeys to get it working, if you are in a WM that doesn't provide this functionality, try installing xbindkeys

XFCE

Assuming you are using alsa, open the XFCE keyboard configuragtion GUI (XFCE Menu > Settings > Keyboard) and add the following to the 'Application Shortcuts' tab. When prompted press the appropriate multimedia key.

Mute

amixer -q set Master toggle

Volume Down

amixer -q set PCM 2- unmute

Volume Up

amixer -q set PCM 2+ unmute

The previous two will adjust the PCM value by 2, if you desire you can change this number.